The No. 4 seed New York Knicks and No. 5 seed Atlanta Hawks will soon square off in the first round of the 2021 NBA playoffs. The series has a chance to be the most exciting matchup of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals.

Who’s Favored?

The series is essentially a coin flip, though the Hawks are given a slight edge. Atlanta has -115 odds to win the series at FanDuel Sportsbook. New York has -105 odds to reach the second round.

Players To Watch

Trae Young is the Hawks’ leading scorer and distributor, and the Knicks had trouble slowing him down in the regular season. In three matchups with New York, Young averaged 24.7 points and 12.0 assists. Julius Randle leads the Knicks in scoring (24.1 ppg), rebounds (10.2 rpg) and assists (6.0 apg). New York needs Randle to be the most productive player in this series.

Series Schedule

The Knicks host the Hawks in Game 1 Sunday night at 7 p.m. ET. The series moves to Atlanta on Friday night. TNT, ESPN and ABC will be broadcasting various games in the series.

Prediction

These two teams are very evenly matched after finishing with the exact same record in the regular season. New York swept the season series 3-0, but Atlanta was dealing with key injuries in each contest. This one could go to Game 7 in Madison Square Garden, where the Knicks will be difficult to beat.

Knicks over Hawks in seven games

Julius Randle #30 and RJ Barrett #9 of the New York Knicks
Julius Randle #30 and RJ Barrett #9 of the New York Knicks Getty Images | Emilee Chinn
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